Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream and Chocolate Bark!

So I've never really found a chocolate cake that I truly like and this recipe has the perfect chocolate cupcake! I came up with the idea a while back when I was eating mint matchmakers but I just got around to making them about a week ago.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 4tbsp Boiling Water
• 1 1/2 oz Cocoa Powder
• 3 Eggs 
• 6 1/2 oz Unsalted Butter, room temp
• 6 oz Golden Caster Sugar
• 4 1/2 oz Self-Raising Flour, sifted
• 1 tsp Baking Powder

Mint Buttercream

• 12 Ounces (340g) Unsalted Butter, room temp
• 1/2 Teaspoon Peppermint Extract
• 11 Ounces(320g) Icing Sugar, sifted
• 3-4 drops of green food colouring (optional)

Chocolate Bark

• 3 1/2 oz Plain Chocolate, melted
• Handful of Marshmallows (optional)
• White Chocolate Chips (optional)

Optional

• Chocolate Chips
• Chocolate Sprinkles
• Mini Matchmakers

Method

Chocolate Bark

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pot of hot water.
2. When melted add the melted chocolate to a lined oven tray.
3. decorate however you want to and place in the freezer.
4. I left mine in the freezer until the cupcakes were done and I took the bark and snapped it and then I put it back in the freezer.

Chocolate Cupcakes

1. Line a muffin tin with paper cases and preheat the oven to  200c (180 fan, Gas mark 6) 
2. Sift the cocoa powder into a bowl and add the boiling water and mix into a thick paste. 
3. Add the remaining ingredients and mix (it doesn't matter what you use to mix, I used a wooden spoon instead of an electric whisk)
4. Divide the mixture evenly into the paper cases (I use an ice cream scoop half full) bake for 12-15 minutes in the pre-heated oven.

Peppermint Buttercream

1. Beat the butter and icing sugar together.
2. Add the peppermint flavouring and the food colouring (optional)
3. I used a piping bag and a nozzle to pipe the icing on but you don't have to.

Enjoy!